27 February 2020, 19:30 – 22:30
Conditions: A very cold night with frequent strong gusts of wind – scuppering my original plan to view some planetary nebulae at the highest magnification the seeing would allow. (I stayed at 133x with the Nagler 9mm for most of the session.) No condensation.
Seeing: Good
Transparency: Poor to Average
The stormy winter continues; this was the first properly clear night for an entire month. I was hoping the storms might drag some clear air behind them, but the transparency didn’t really improve until the last half-hour of the session – by which point the cold was already becoming too much for me.
As usual, I began with a look at M42 (at 133x), before moving to Rigel. The companion star was easily visible, although partially obstructed by an extra diffraction spike. (I think this must have been something to do with the scope cooling down; the spike wasn’t present when I looked at Regulus later in the session with the same eyepiece.)
Betelgeuse is gradually starting to brighten again, according to recent reports. To the naked eye it seemed at least as bright as neighbouring Bellatrix, maybe fractionally brighter. Through the eyepiece it had a lovely orange/tangerine hue, strikingly different from the blue-white of Rigel. The colour was so vivid it prompted me to revisit another colourful star…
Hind’s Crimson Star, aka R Leporis, carbon star in Lepus
Seemed fainter than when I last looked at it, though the conditions (and/or the neighbours’ lights) might have had something to do with this. At 133x the blood-red hue contrasted nicely with the deep orange of Betelgeuse.
NGC 2170, reflection nebula, Monoceros
I drew a blank on NGC 2149, but 2170 was just visible as a very faint misty patch surrounding a star. Needed averted vision to be sure of seeing it.
M48, open cluster, Hydra
As noted previously, rich cluster of bright stars. Less impressive at 133x than at 92x in the Ethos, although the higher magnification does reveal some fainter stars near the middle. Distinctive two-arm flattened “spiral” of stars winding out from the centre along a N-S axis.
NGC 2506 (Caldwell 54), open cluster, Monoceros
Rich, small, condensed cluster. Several stars resolved with direct vision, with an underlying haze of unresolved stars. I think this cluster would look quite good on a better night. Seemed to be a dark “rift” protruding into the cluster from the south, giving it a bi-lobed appearance, like a sycamore seed.
NGC 2539, open cluster, Puppis
Rich, heart-shaped cluster, immediately west of 5th magnitude 19 Puppis. Brighter, larger and looser than 2506.
M67, open cluster, Cancer
Very rich cluster, perfectly framed at 133x. Stars arranged in tight clumps.
NGC 2362, Tau Canis Majoris cluster (Caldwell 64), Canis Major
Couldn’t resist another look at this spectacular cluster. I think the Ethos gives an aesthetically superior view, but the higher magnification does make it easier to resolve some of the close doubles lying within. Definitely one of the prettiest clusters I’ve seen – like fireflies gathering around a brilliant light.
NGC 2903, galaxy, Leo
Somewhat faint tonight compared to previous observations, but it still surprises me that this galaxy didn’t even make the Caldwell list. Condensed core, extended outer haze. With prolonged observation it seemed to take on a mottled appearance, with dark patches either side of the core. No spiral structure visible tonight.
I also looked for the dwarf galaxy Leo 1 near Regulus, but couldn’t see it on this occasion. Maybe an occulting bar would help…
I then pushed the scope towards Canes Venatici and Ursa Major to look at some old favourites (M108, M97 and M51). Nothing to add to previous notes (M51 wasn’t yet high enough to show much structure), but at approximately 21:25 I noticed an unusually slow-moving satellite or other object of about 9th or 10th magnitude pass just south of M51 (in the 9mm Nagler field of view), travelling in a roughly south-east direction. I checked Stellarium the following day, but it didn’t show anything in the vicinity at that time. Space-junk? One of SpaceX’s mega-constellation satellites? I have a feeling I’m going to be seeing a lot more of this stuff.
NGC 3631, galaxy, Ursa Major
Faint, round galaxy, brighter towards centre. Vaguely mottled with averted vision.
NGC 3756, galaxy, Ursa Major
Small, faint, featureless galaxy near field star. (I assume it was this I saw and not the nearby NGC 3738.)
M109, galaxy, Ursa Major
Large, faint galaxy extended along SW-NE axis; brighter towards centre. Bright star off south-western edge; fainter one off opposite edge.
NGC 3953, galaxy, Ursa Major
Moderately bright galaxy, rivalling nearby M109. Somewhat brighter towards centre. Misty/ghostly outer envelope – swells with averted vision.
I finished off the session by taking a quick tour of some spring favourites with the Ethos 13mm (92x):
M51 was high enough now to show some structure in the form of dark “crescents” between the spiral arms, although the spiral arms themselves remained elusive.
M101 was easy to find in the Ethos, but less easy to see any kind of structure beyond the core. The longer I looked, the brighter it got, with the suggestion of an isolated misty patch east of the nucleus (NGC 5462?) – but that was right on the limit of visibility. If I spent several hours on this galaxy over multiple nights, I think I could probably tease out more detail, but do I really want to devote all that precious time to one object when there are so many other galaxies to look at? (The deep-sky observer's dilemma...)
M106 was bright and obvious, but less detailed at this magnification.
NGC 4449 was small and bright with the now-familiar bright diagonal bar quite obvious across the face of the galaxy.
NGC 4565: a distinctive needle of light; dark lane visible with averted vision.
M65/M66/NGC 3628 (the Leo Triplet): M65 and M66 are well framed in the Ethos. NGC 3628 was significantly fainter, but not too difficult as galaxies go. The dark dust lane was visible with averted vision and was noticeably broader than the one running through 4565.
M3 was easy to find for once (thanks to the 9x50 finder). In the Ethos it appeared as a finely resolved ball of stars, with a very distinctive aquamarine tinge – backing up an observation I made last year with the 9mm Nagler. I think it’s easier to study this globular at the higher magnification, but the superfine detail in the Ethos was a sight to behold (it’s certainly something you’ll never see in a photograph). There seemed to be a dark lane on the eastern side of the cluster, giving it a vaguely squared-off appearance.
NGC 3115, the Spindle Galaxy (Caldwell 53), Sextans
This showed up as a bright little streak of light (one of the brightest galaxies I looked at tonight), well deserving of its nickname. Very bright towards the centre. For some reason I was sure I’d seen this galaxy before, but I can’t find any mention of it in my records (With hindsight I think I might have been confusing it with the similarly shaped NGC 2683 in Lynx). Definitely worth revisiting at a higher magnification.
Nature note:
After a couple of weeks of frenetic splashing, the frog breeding season seems to have been suspended, leaving a large clump of frogspawn at one end of the pond. But there may be more to come: torchlight revealed several large frogs lurking deeper in the water.
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